Russia’s biggest bank, Sberbank, said on Friday it had made a proposal to General Motors (GM) seeking compensation for losses it incurred after the US auto giant dropped plans to sell its Opel unit.
Sberbank chief executive and former Russian trade minister German Gref said the bank would go to court unless GM agreed to cover the expenses incurred by the Russian state-owned bank in talks to buy GM’s European unit Opel.
“We have formulated all the expenses now and forwarded to the company a proposal on voluntary compensation of the costs,” Ria-Novosti news agency quoted Gref as saying.
“If it is not accepted, then we will seek the compensation through legal proceedings. We have sustained serious losses,” Gref added, without elaborating.
The Sberbank chief executive said last month his bank was weighing legal action against GM.
OPEL STAKE
Russia felt cheated after GM last month scrapped plans to sell a 55 percent stake in Opel to Canadian auto parts maker Magna and Sberbank, despite a preliminary deal reached after months of talks.
“Nine months of talks, 9,000 initialed pages of the contract had been ready for signing,” Gref said according to Interfax. “And two days before the deal GM abandoned it.”
Russian officials had hoped the deal would be a chance to boost the country’s ailing car industry and obtain top European automotive technologies and expertise on the cheap.
TOYOTA
Separately, Japan’s Toyota Motor plans to boost its global production next year by 17 percent to about 7.5 million units, Japanese media reported yesterday.
The output target — which does not include Toyota group firms Daihatsu Motor and Hino Motors — is still down about 1 million units from the peak year of 2007 and matches the level of 2005, the Nikkei business daily said.
However, Toyota may raise its output for next year further after taking into account the impact of the government’s decision to extend subsidies for purchases of environmentally friendly vehicles by six months to September next year, the paper reported.
Following the global sales slump as a result of the financial crisis, Toyota early this year embarked on steep production cuts centered on its major markets — Japan, the US and Europe.
However, sales in major markets have recovered gradually and with demand picking up in China and other emerging markets, Toyota’s global sales recorded their first year-on-year rise in 15 months in October.
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